Free Will-y

I will.

We say it when we marry.

We say it when we agree to something we don't particularly want to do.

We say it when we swear in court to tell the whole truth.

I will is a powerful statement. It is a declaration of intent, an indicator that a person has himself under enough control that he can direct his future actions.

Lucifer was probably the first created being to use the phrase when he said, "I will be like the Most High God. I will set my throne above His."

Even after that revolt in Heaven, God still embedded in the human heart a free will. Lucifer's betrayal did not deter God from His purpose: to create man in His own image with the freedom to choose right or wrong.

You have a will. Every moment of every day you are exercising that will. Even though you may feel trapped by your circumstances, chained to a dead-end job, or drowning in children who had seemed a good idea at the time, you still have a choice.

Remaining chained is a choice. Whether or not to cave in to your emotions is a choice. How you choose to deal with your particular circumstances is up to you.

But God has a will too. It is His will that every one of his human creations come to love and honor Him. He desires that every one of us choose His will over our own.

But He won't force it.

Isn't it interesting that the God who created the universe sets aside His own desire to give us what we demand? If we demand our own way, if we insist on trying to meet our own needs in our own way, he won't tie us down.

He allows what he hates because He is completely just. He won't violate His own laws for the sake of His heart.

• What if you took your will--as though it was an object you could detach--and handed it to God?

• What if you made it your goal to forfeit your will in favor or God's, just as He has done for you?

• What would your life look like then?

Is that a scary thought?

Lucifer became Satan when God hurled him from Heaven and he lives for the dark thrill of scaring us to death. Where do you think you got the idea that total surrender to God will involve heartache and disaster? Whose twisted mind produced the thought that God only wants to hurt and destroy you? It wasn't yours.

Ever since the evil one uttered those first defiant words, I will, he has made it his goal to get us to do the same.

What if you stopped listening to him and made it your goal to have no will of your own?

What if God's will became yours?

What if you tried that today?

What if in answer to God's call on your life, you answered,

"I Will!"